Markey moving from House to Senate

Wednesday

Jun 26, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Veteran U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey won a promotion to the U.S. Senate Tuesday, outpolling challenger Gabriel E. Gomez by a wide margin in an extremely low turnout Senate election to decide who would serve out John F. Kerry's unexpired term.

The outcome, foretold in polls that gave the Malden Democrat consistent leads through his primary contest against U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Boston, and the general election campaigns, will secure Mr. Markey 17 months in the Senate before facing re-election in November 2014.

With more than 95 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Markey led 55 percent to Mr. Gomez's 45 percent.

Mr. Markey led a massive grass-roots campaign effort around the state that used as many as 17,000 campaign volunteers to make phone calls and knock on doors to get out voters targeted earlier as likely Markey supporters.

Mr. Markey raised about $9 million in the primary and general election, outspending his opponents, but far less than the $42 million raised by Democrat Elizabeth Warren last year to beat Republican Scott Brown's $35 million campaign.

The Democrat's lead over Mr. Gomez in polls appeared to build during the last two weeks, even as voter interest seemed to fade in the race to fill what was only the second open U.S. Senate seat in the state in 28 years.

Mr. Gomez, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and equity investor making his first major bid for elected office, nonetheless found support in partially every corner of the state, winning most of Central Massachusetts, including Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Ashburnham, Lunenburg, Sterling, Holden, Boylston, Westminster, the Brookfields, Oakham, Douglas, Sutton, Barre, Sturbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Auburn, Oxford and Webster among others.

In debates and during expansive stumping around the state during the last month, Mr. Markey pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare, legal abortion and Obamacare while criticizing his Republican opponent for refusing to back a ban on assault weapons and for his anti-abortion stand.

His candidacy was bolstered by a string of appearances by the top stars of the Democratic Party with President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, and Vice President Joe Biden making campaign stops for the Democrat who also had early backing from Victoria Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family.

While no final voter turnout numbers were immediately available, it appeared the turnout failed to even meet the low expectations of Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who predicted as few as 1.6 million. The turnout was about 1.2 million, falling to the lowest voter participation ever in a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.

Markey officials said it was not yet clear how soon Mr. Markey would be sworn in to replace interim Sen. William “Mo” Cowan, who was named by the governor to stand in until voters chose a replacement for Mr. Kerry as provided for in state law adopted in 2004.

Mr. Markey fenced with Mr. Gomez through three debates while his opponent complained that the Democrat had not solved major issues such as tax and entitlement program reforms during 37 years in the House. Moreover, Mr. Gomez tried to blame Mr. Markey's politics for the nation's deficit and fiscal problems, while calling for a two-year increase in the age of eligibility for Social Security.

Mr. Markey appeared to thrive on the challenge to his longevity in Congress, citing his own record of initiating laws to cut off the flow of cheap Chinese assault weapons in the 1990s, require checks for nuclear materials on ships entering U.S. harbors and the screening of all cargo on passenger aircraft after 9-11.

While Republicans criticized Mr. Markey for owning a home in the Washington D.C. area and rarely spending time in Massachusetts, Mr. Markey insisted the home his parents owned and which he now owns in Malden, was his residence. Meanwhile he highlighted his family's modest working class roots and early years in Malden as part of his campaign.

State Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh said the party had never run a “get out the vote” drive during a heat wave, but about 17,000 volunteers for Ed Markey joined in over the last two days of the campaign “and drove turnout all across the state.”

The race, he said “was driven on the issues,” but was plagued by distractions from the start.

“Since this started we had a couple of blizzards, a couple of heat waves, some nasty events,” including the Boston Marathon bombing, Mr. Walsh said, adding that as the election approached people's kids were getting out of school.

“All of those things are competing for people's attention. But in the face of that when nobody thought anyone could run a real campaign, Ed Markey put 17,000 Democrats on the ground, knocking on doors and making phone calls and pushing through the last five days of GOTV,” Mr. Walsh said.

He said Democrats have been drawing on “a deep pool of talent” to win all the major elections in the state since 2010, and when Mr. Gomez tried to use Mr. Markey's extensive experience in Washington against him, “It didn't work.”

“His opponent tried to make that a negative thing, but what people who care about a woman's right to choose understood is that Ed Markey has been there for 30 years.

“For people who care about common sense gun laws, Ed Markey's been leading to fight against assault weapons,” he said.